Why Can’t Rick Scott Learn?

posted by Bill Mick -
Mar 16, 2017

I don’t know if it’s ignorance bred from success in the business world or something else, but something is keeping Rick Scott, in his 7th year as governor, from learning how his job actually works. I am so disappointed in this governor it’s amazing. I supported him against Bill McCollum and believed I was justified in doing so. Scott was smart, not an establishment politician and someone who could effect change in Tallahassee. Yet, here in the waning years of his administration he exhibits no signs of learning anything about how things are done in government.

He is no longer a CEO telling people what to do and expecting them to march to his orders. He has failed himself by having the wrong people around him. The right people would be telling him the areas where he is missing opportunity or the mark all together. One area is his passion for Enterprise Florida and Visit Florida. Those entities have come under attack for good reasons: fraud, waste and abuse.

Scott is smart enough to see this. What he isn’t smart enough to see is that Richard Corcoran, the Speaker of the House, has the high ground in this battle. They are both Republicans…you know the fiscally responsible party. How Scott can argue for the waste and abuse that has gone on is mystifying.

And how does the governor not see that there is a negotiation going on here? He’s even won a round or two in the negotiations and hasn’t been at the table. The House caved on Visit Florida agreeing to minimal funding. Enterprise Florida will get the ax if the House gets its way.

The governor needs to sit down with leadership and come to a compromise. Calling out of control entities into account will be a strong move. Scott not seeing that is a severe weakness and a sign he is not ready for the political battle he approaches if he should run against Bill Nelson. A race, by the way, that Scott is incapable of winning.

Instead of working with his party leadership, the governor is traveling the state on a retaliation tour against those Republicans who have voted with the Speaker…in overwhelming numbers. That fact alone should cause the governor to reconsider his position. It hasn’t. And that is discouraging. He isn’t learning and the yes men around him must be afraid to point out the reality of the world the governor is apparently not seeing. Until he does, or they do, we are doomed to a governor traipsing around the state appearing to be in favor of fraud, waste and abuse of Floridian’s tax dollars.